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On December 17, 2014, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), announced additional sanctions against various individuals and entities that have been providing specialty petroleum products to Syria and Pangates International Corporation Ltd. and facilitating deceptive transactions for the government of Syria. The actions are in furtherance of existing Executive Orders (E.O. 13582 and E.O. 13608).

A list of the additional companies and individuals that have been designated can be found on OFAC's Resource Center. Certain of the new designations will appear on OFAC's Specially Designated Nationals List and others will appear on OFAC's Foreign Sanctions Evaders List.

According to statements made by OFAC's Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David S. Cohen, OFAC is " … committed to exposing, isolating, and targeting the Syrian regime's support network." This latest round of additional sanctions is aimed at entities and persons that provide specialty petroleum products to Syria and at those who facilitate deceptive transactions for the Syrian government.

The actions taken by OFAC pursuant to E.O. 13582 freeze any assets the designees may have under U.S. jurisdiction and generally prohibit all financial and commercial transactions by any U.S. person with the designees. In addition, pursuant to E.O. 13608, the actions announced by OFAC generally prohibit transactions involving the sanctioned persons that are subject to U.S. jurisdiction, including transactions by U.S. persons wherever located.